Calls for walk-in booster jab centres to be urgently opened in Wales rejected by Health Minsiter
Health minister Eluned Morgan has rejected calls for booster jab walk-in centres to be opened in Wales.
Opposition politicians have called for walk-in centres to be “urgently opened” amid claims of low take-up of the booster jab.
Walk-in centres for booster jabs of prioritised groups opened in England earlier this week in order to limit the demand on the NHS this winter.
“Their absence in Wales has led to fears that this won’t be possible here.” The Welsh Conservatives have said.
It prompted Conservative MS Russell George to ask for the measure when replying to a Senedd statement by Labour’s health minister, Eluned Morgan.
A booster jab is the third vaccination against Covid-19 and should be delivered six months after the second in an effort to maintain high levels of immunity against the virus.
They are being delivered to priority groups such as care home residents, frontline health and social care workers, those with underlying health conditions, and adults over 50 years of age.
These groups are being invited for their booster jab by health boards. However, there are reports that this has not yet begun in some health authority areas.
However, despite high take-up of the first vaccine and slightly lower for the second, numbers for the third are lagging: as of 31 October, Wales has delivered booster jabs to 454,530 people, amounting to 16.5% of people over 12 years old.
Commenting after, Welsh Conservative and Shadow Health Minister Russell George MS said: “The rollout of the vaccine is a great success story across the UK, but the uptake of the booster jab concerns me, and I think numbers would be much higher if people did not have to wait to be invited, instead having the option of a walk-in centre.
“Given the worry that ministers express about coronavirus rates in Wales, I am surprised that this is not the priority of the Labour Government right now, who instead think expanding the use of vaccine passports is a better use of time and energy when they have been nothing more than an ineffective limiting of our liberties that fail to increase uptake of the vaccine or limit the spread.
“Meanwhile, people in England can walk into a centre for their booster jab but those in Wales can’t.”
“It is not acceptable that Welsh people cannot access the same level of safety as our English cousins. I hope the Minister changes her mind and urgently acts on our reasonable calls.”
In response, health minister Eluned Morgan said the Welsh Government is looking to deliver boosters in a “systematic way”, accusing the English system of being a “free-for-all” despite walk-in centres opening only for priority groups.
She said: “On boosters, I’m pleased to say that we’re doing very well in Wales, and we’re following the same priorities as we did in the first round, and that is making sure that we actually do it in line with the kind of vulnerability of people.”
“So, we have people over the age of 50 within those categories one to nine, but we’re working through them in a very systematic way so that, obviously, care home residents have been some of the first to have been offered.”
“I’m pleased to say that about 68 per cent of care home residents have already had their booster jabs, as have about 54 per cent of care home workers and NHS workers.”
“So, these are the first categories that we’re looking at, so we’re not going to be opening it up to a free-for-all in the way that they have in England.”
“We’ll be more systematic than that, following the kind of advice that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation gave in the first round.”
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